Still no NFL Network on Time Warner

For the fourth straight year, the NFL will present a Thanksgiving television tripleheader ... to about half the country.

The rest of us will watch the first two games, as unappealing as they are — Packers-Lions and Raiders-Cowboys — and then be forced to scramble among some hoops and a college football game between really good Texas and really mediocre Texas A&M. (Well, either that or actually talk to our family and guests.)

Meanwhile, Giants-Broncos, a game of great interest in many markets, including San Diego, will be on NFL Network, seen locally only in those homes with Cox Cable's Sports & Information Package, DirecTV, Dish Network or AT&T U-Verse.

If you have Time Warner Cable, you won't see Thursday's game. Just like you didn't see last night's game ... or last week's game ... or last year's games ... or the rest of this year's games, except for Chargers-Titans on Dec. 25, which will be simulcast on KFMB Channel 8.

It just goes on and on and on.

The NFL this week cranked up the propaganda machine, placing an ad in
Politico,
a Washington publication read by members of Congress and other insiders. The thrust of the ad: Time Warner is the only TV provider among the top five in the U.S. that does not carry NFL Network.

The league also released some quotes from Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking in Charlotte:

“We have 53 million homes and more than 300 distributors. ... It's pretty clear that a market has been established, that there is a clear demand for the product. It's gotten a tremendous reaction, and this year we've added the NFL RedZone (which takes viewers to different games without having to change the channel).”

Time Warner's argument is familiar — that the NFL wants too much money for eight regular-season games.

“We remain open to a deal under fair and reasonable terms — however, we believe they are currently demanding an excessive amount of money for eight regular season games,” Marc Farrar, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable in San Diego, said via e-mail. “Our customers already spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year to watch the vast majority of available NFL games and football-related content on broadcast stations and ESPN.”

It's true that fans already spend a great deal of money to watch the NFL — but many would spend more (just look at sales of NFL Sunday Ticket). And it's also true that NFL Network offers more than eight regular-season games, especially with the RedZone channel, which the league will allow to be placed on a sports tier. In theory, that would permit the cable operator to recoup some of its money.

Farrar wrote that “spending so much on NFLN might keep us from making other investments that would better serve our customers' needs 365 days/year. We feel it is a better choice to add other great programming — like the lineup of new HD sports channels we have, new on demand content and other programming features, rather than the NFLN.”